This was a good and very encouraging month. Now, I’m tempting fate as I acknowledged whenever I post overtly positive/motivational posts, it all falls apart shortly afterward.
But to quote Michael Scott from The Office, “I’m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious….”
Monthly Progress and Alpacas
Looking back, I’ve been consistent with the gym and taking my health more seriously for about 2 months now. The first month was pretty much flailing about and trying to get my legs back under me. It was about a month in when I really started taking progress pictures and feeling more confident with the trend and consistency.
Note, the angles aren’t perfect as I didn’t mean to have these as comparison pics, just sort of came as a happy accident with the same shirt.
I can definitely see a difference with the shirt draping a bit more on my gut, and my face is definitely slimmer!
Looking at the scale, between these two pictures was 9 lb difference, or half a baby alpaca.
Baby alpaca, you say? I think a fun thing to do is relate my weight loss in terms of baby exotic animals. We’ll see how much I actually stick with this silliness.
A great thing to note is that while the scale dropped 9lbs, I also increased my weights on the floor, my flexibility drastically increased, and both endurance and speed on the treadmill have increased!
Performance Update
My performance spiked a bit, I mentioned last post how I feel like my body “flipped a switch” and that feeling continues. Last week I was confident enough to sign up for a 90 min OTF class. I was beat from it, but burned 1,538 calories and I feel like I didn’t scale back the intensity all that much, considering the extended time!
Also, two days ago the workout began with the floor, which consisted of lunges, core, and shoulder work. The treadmill began with a mile run then rowing in between, then half mile, row, etc.
While I do go at “power walking” speed, which means I should do half the distance with incline, I decided to try and run a mile straight through, just to see if I could do it. And I did!
It was a slow 15:45, I kept it at 3.8mph for a majority of the time then bumped it up to 4mph at the end to finish strong. It was incredibly encouraging, I mean I was winded and on the verge of lightheadedness, but I did it!
With the Bears 5k 3 months away, I feel like I’m ahead of the game, just need to stay consistent and begin longer runs outside of OTF soon.
Learning From The Past
Speaking of running outside, I was holding off on that for one particular reason. Remember how I mentioned a few weeks back having some knee discomfort? I’ve focused on my form a LOT and that’s alleviated the problem, haven’t felt much since.
However, then I remembered THIS POST from two years ago. The quote in question:
Towards the end of April I began having little nagging pain at the top of my left foot. Considering my old shoes were 2 years old, after 4 5k races it was time to retire them and get some new shoes….
So, now. It’s late April, two years later, I’m starting to have some new pain…..
YA BOY LEARNS FROM THE PAST!
I decided to stick with my “getting two pairs of shoes and rotating between them to extend the life” theory. Plus, it says shoes like this take 24-48 hours to re-expand after using, so switching will give them plenty of time.
My friends over at DNA- Active Lifestyle Outfitter hooked me up and I’m going to test them out tomorrow morning!
Non-Scale or Aesthetic Improvements
Another thing that I’d like to talk about is how this past month as improved my overall wellness. I mentioned in this post at the beginning of the month that I had low energy. I’ll admit, even after that post, the low energy, lethargy, and lack of motivation with my work continued.
But I’m happy to say that just this past week, I finally feel like I’ve broken out of that mental rut. I pushed through the projects I was procrastinating working on, and feel like I’m in a better place. I even did a super cleaning of my apartment!
My energy has also improved significantly. Although, since the 90 minute workout last week, I’ve felt a bit run down. So I think I’m going to take an extra day off this weekend. (Workout tomorrow, Saturday, since I have a bday party lunch after. But take Sunday, Easter off and also the day after off.)
My body is telling me to let myself recuperate a little bit more, then I can slowly step up the frequency and/or intensity.
Also, something I don’t write about in here enough, my sleep has improved as well. So, mentally things have improved. I feel like I can always get a little better, but it’s definitely in a better place than a month ago and hopefully with consistency that upward trend will continue.
Alright, time for bed because tomorrow will be a long day!